Ever since the question was asked...

About the "Negril rate of infection", I have been contemplating and trying to collect all my thoughts about the viability of coming to Jamaica in the very short term, say in the next couple weeks. The CDC just put Jamaica on the Red list but left out other reasons that have been on my mind that would effect your vacation.

At the present time, under no circumstance would I advise a non fully vaccinated person to visit Jamaica. The community spread is currently too high to risk exposure, and the hospitals are already overwhelmed as it is. Even for the fully vaccinated, I would expect you to have travel insurance with air-lift medical emergency transport off the island should you get a "breakthrough" infection which seem to be happening more often.

But what isn't, or hasn't been mentioned to my knowledge is the effect of no-movement days on your vacation. Three out of each seven days you would be in Negril, but its not the Negril you deserve. We have at least one more week of these 3 day lockdowns. They might be working as of yesterday, although the number of new infections was high, the number of tests was the highest ever. Yesterday was the first day in 3 weeks we have had a Covid positive infection testing rate under 30%. We have been hovering around 50% of those tested being positive for Covid.

So while that is good news, until we hear more from the Prime Minister about the ending of the no movement days, I would delay any travel plans to Jamaica unless you are fully vaccinated and willing to put up with no movement days locked down to your hotel.

Dream Weekend seems to have been a tragic misjudgment and we are all paying the price for it here. Businesses in Negril are closing because of the no-movement days, and while your visiting would help the economy, there are still 3 days that your time here would not help the small businesses.

If you are still interested in helping the small businesses of Negril, please contribute to our small business project at the Negril Store. https://negrilstore.com

Hopefully these no movement days will help bring the numbers down quickly, but until that time, unless you are fully vaccinated and have good travel insurance, for your safety and ours, please delay your trip.

Thank you for this information Rob!

Rob, i realize your role is to promote Negril. i m sure all of us on the board are appreciative of your unbiased comment . we are planned for our valentines day trip so lets hope things are under control by then.

OMG, Rob, thanks a lot for your honest evaluation of the situation. Can't believe we just made it to Negril and back without any harm at the tail end of this darn Dream Weekend with our scheduled departure during the first no movement block of days... It breaks my heart thinking of what businesses and people in general and in the healthcare system must be going through right now. We can only hope that the spread will stop soon! The Negril beach when we were there was just as beautiful as ever...

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Thanks very much for the valuable info !

Rob,

That has to be one of the toughest posts you have written since 1996!

Looking forward to the day, this is behind us and we can enjoy much need time on the rock!

VVHT

We were in Jamaica during 3 of the 3 day lockdowns. They were announced two days before the beginning of our trip. This was our fourth trip since the pandemic broke out world wide. Since we are in the midst of building a house in Treasure Beach, we haven't been able to postpone. The lockdowns - plus two (non-lockdown) days lost to the downpours that Ida caused - did reduce how much we were able to accomplish this trip. The positive outcome of the lockdowns is that we found out that the restaurant at the Negril Beach Club (Thumbs Up) is actually quite good and we'll be patronizing it more on future trips. The lockdowns were very hard even on the restaurants that were allowed to be open (on hotel grounds) as they tended to run out of things by the third day.

We find that protocols for entering businesses are generally good (although taking temperatures in such a hot climate can be problematic and not necessarily helpful) and feel every bit as safe as in the US. There are about the same percentage of people not wearing masks or wearing them improperly, although our latest trip it did seem that there was more/better mask wearing. We try to encourage locals we converse with to get vaccinated and the taxi drivers we use, especially for long trips (MBJ-Treasure Beach; Treasure Beach-Negril and Negril-MBJ), are vaccinated and we all wear masks and have the windows open. We have always purchased travel insurance and now make sure that it covers COVID related illness. I was more worried about changing planes and doing immigration/customs in Miami than spending 3 weeks in Jamaica.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by qwerty

We were in Jamaica during 3 of the 3 day lockdowns. They were announced two days before the beginning of our trip. This was our fourth trip since the pandemic broke out world wide. Since we are in the midst of building a house in Treasure Beach, we haven't been able to postpone. The lockdowns - plus two (non-lockdown) days lost to the downpours that Ida caused - did reduce how much we were able to accomplish this trip. The positive outcome of the lockdowns is that we found out that the restaurant at the Negril Beach Club (Thumbs Up) is actually quite good and we'll be patronizing it more on future trips. The lockdowns were very hard even on the restaurants that were allowed to be open (on hotel grounds) as they tended to run out of things by the third day.

We find that protocols for entering businesses are generally good (although taking temperatures in such a hot climate can be problematic and not necessarily helpful) and feel every bit as safe as in the US. There are about the same percentage of people not wearing masks or wearing them improperly, although our latest trip it did seem that there was more/better mask wearing. We try to encourage locals we converse with to get vaccinated and the taxi drivers we use, especially for long trips (MBJ-Treasure Beach; Treasure Beach-Negril and Negril-MBJ), are vaccinated and we all wear masks and have the windows open. We have always purchased travel insurance and now make sure that it covers COVID related illness. I was more worried about changing planes and doing immigration/customs in Miami than spending 3 weeks in Jamaica.

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Omg I felt the exact same way! We had a terrible experience traveling but sighed a breath of relief once we were there!.

The weather is here, wish you were beautiful!!! Got here on the 17th. CVS rapid antigen test in the states. No problem! Club Mobay, no problem. Maybe 20min. Through the airport. Linston, no problem. It's soooo wonderful and I am so happy to be back! My sanity is restored. Flight was full. All excited. I don’t find this irresponsible as long as folks are responsible. We were delayed and had to get off the plane due to a mechanical failure. Ok! All gracious and respectful. Covid is not going away. If you plan to delay trips or your life until it is gone then plan on never traveling again. So very happy to be here and see my great friends here again!

Thanks, Rob! What would we do without you? :encouragement:

I just booked 8 days in Negril and Montego Bay yesterday for a surprise B Day for my wife
I just cancelled today
Just not worth the risk
Bummer

Rob
Thanks for your point of view and honesty
very refreshing
I will just move my trip back a few months
Negrilbound